On the other side, a few hours before the “engineering team” arrived —

The camera shook, and as Shelk moved, a few drops of dirty water splashed onto the lens.

The lighting in the frame was also not clear, after all, this was a sewer.

Two hours had passed since Shelk entered the sewer. During this time, Vivi had contacted the engineering team to repair her office, but they wouldn’t start working until 10 a.m.

——Even as the mayor, she couldn’t make them work overtime.

Vivi turned her head in frustration. At this moment, the flashlight shone on the sewer wall, clearly revealing non-human claw marks.

Gotham’s underground was like a labyrinth.

Various kinds of garbage emitted stenches, floating in the dark with the water flow, occasionally accompanied by the squeaks of rats fleeing from the other side. Shelk waded through hundreds of meters of water, not finding a trace of human corpses.

It seemed her second body had drifted away with the water. Vivi checked and found that, following the current, all garbage would flow towards the sea, where large items were processed directly at the seaside garbage station, crushed, filtered, mixed into concrete, or became part of the sediment, all directly controlled by machines… Could a corpse be considered large garbage?

Since it seemed temporarily irretrievable, Vivi put this matter aside — after all, the dead unnamed woman’s corpse had nothing to do with the Mayor of Gotham.

However, during this time, her diligent secretary still brought her many other clues, all triggering missions.

For example —

【Side Mission: Bloody Rhyme】

【A nursery rhyme written in blood on the wall was half-eroded: “Owl… venturing out… Gotham… sharp claws…” Complete the rhyme, it might help you activate a new character card】

【Side Mission: Claw Marks in the Sewer】

【Take a look at the claw marks on the wall. It seems a large creature left traces of its existence here. You need to know what happened, it might help you activate a new character card】

And her biggest gain —

【Main Mission Activated: Urban Construction System – Underground Chapter】

【Gotham City has a long history, and its underground sewage system has been in operation for over a hundred years, leaving countless loopholes after numerous repairs. Over the years, whether it’s criminals or vigilantes, they fought, built illegal structures, and escaped underground, ignoring the real needs of Gotham’s citizens for the sewers. You need to change all this】

【Description: Start with a more efficient, better-draining, and more comprehensive construction plan】

【Task (1): Underground Map】

【Explore every fork in the road, and complete the map of Gotham’s underground. This is Gotham, nothing should be beyond the mayor’s control】

【Task Reward: New Gotham Sewer Construction Plan x1, Mystery Gift Pack Reward】

Well, finally a basic construction mission appeared.

Completing this series of tasks might simultaneously improve [City Security] and [City Prosperity], but obviously, this is going to be an increasingly difficult series of missions…

But do players back down because of difficult tasks?

With only less than 1% of the underground map explored, Vivi first called back the tired and hungry Shelk. Having an NPC skilled in paperwork doing physical exploration tasks was clearly overkill. She needed a more efficient method.

After a night of hustle, the sun had already risen. The employees were back at work. Shelk tidied himself up, and ate something to satisfy his growling stomach.

It was a rare sunny day in Gotham. When he pushed the door and entered, the mayor was standing in front of the steel-reinforced wall, gazing at the large hole nearby. Occasionally other employees passed by, peeking curiously at the surprising situation.

Shelk frowned and shooed them away, then straightened his tie and poured coffee for the mayor before Millie could.

After a night away and returning to find no work waiting for her, Millie: “……”

However, Vivi didn’t notice their gazes, as she was looking at the map.

Vivi knew that there were many red names in Gotham City, even in City Hall. Nearly all in City Hall, like last night’s [Penguin’s Underling], were just mingling with the security team, totaling eleven people.

As for the clerical work aspect, there was only Shelk, but now he was on her side.

…… This might be a problem with Gotham City’s basic education, after all, not just anyone can do clerical work to the level of Chief-of-Staff.

She and these red names coexisted peacefully, guessing that their missions were to infiltrate rather than assassinate. Thinking back to last night’s events — they might also include subtly causing trouble when the mayor issues orders. They really disliked her, naturally having a negative impression.

Vivi believed that once Penguin ordered them, she would have to deal with another corpse.

Dealing with corpses wasn’t the mayor’s job.

She needed to find a way to deal with these ticking bombs.

And now, Vivi thought, the solution had actively come to her hands —

On the map.

Four red dots and one green dot were crammed into a fast-moving engineering vehicle, heading in the direction of City Hall.

[Construction Worker · Fake (Black Mask’s Subordinate)][Construction Worker · Fake (Black Mask’s Subordinate)]

[Temporary Worker (Gotham Academy Student)][Construction Worker · Fake (Assassin)]

[Construction Worker · Fake (Black Mask’s Subordinate)]

Surrounded by four red dots, the pitiful student appeared weak and helpless. Before dealing with the red names, she had to ensure the safety of the innocent student.

After all, all green names were her potential employees, who would provide her with taxes in the future and currently offered her work — was she supposed to rely on red names to build walls?

*

Two underlings sat in the front row, one driving.

The underboss of Black Mask’s men sat in the last row. The three had a deliberate seating arrangement upon entering the car, ensuring that if anything went wrong, the other two “outsiders” would be caught in their crossfire.

After Deadshot and Peter got in the car, their attention focused more on Deadshot.

The man was strong and clearly not someone to mess with, and his temperament seemed foul. The boy who got on later seemed to have no work experience, a goody-two-shoes from school, both in terms of work and “work.”

——He would probably be knocked down with a single punch if he encountered these gangsters.

The three men brought these two along mainly to add a layer of security for their infiltration into City Hall.

Simply put, if the three were suspected during their mission, the other two original “engineering team” members could use their faces to dispel the suspicions. In a pinch, the two innocents could also become the closest hostages.

Considering these reasons, they didn’t knock down the other two immediately upon getting in the car but chose to bide their time.

As for Deadshot… he realized something was amiss as soon as he got in the car.

His years as a hired assassin had sharpened his instincts. He deduced from the aura of the few men that the three driving were together. The one in the back row had calluses on his hands from handling guns, clearly not a good marksman, and the front two were even less noteworthy — but Peter caught his eye when he got on.

This was a young man with a conflicting aura. He clearly didn’t belong in Gotham, not a Gothamite, nor had he delved into darkness. The “temporary worker” story, though coincidental, seemed very likely, just that he was hiding something.

His eagerness about City Hall was too strong, like he wanted to infiltrate and do something…

Deadshot: This kid…

Might be a reporter!

Peter’s demeanor indeed resembled a journalist’s, lively and curious, just suppressing his desires for now. He might be interning at the Gotham Daily, looking to make a big scoop, which would explain everything.

“Chuckle.”

This car was quite comical: three gangsters, a world-class assassin, and a rookie journalist, (as he thought) the only one who saw through everything, Deadshot thought. Not even a real construction worker among them.

But, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The danger of a close-range assassination was much higher than that of long-range sniping, and chaos would increase the safety of an assassin like him.

As for Peter, he hid one hand in his overly large coat, blindly typing a message to Tim on his phone.

After getting in the car, he felt a bit impulsive. Gotham was not his familiar New York; it was better to report to Tim first.

Under the divergent thoughts of the three types of people, the engineering vehicle finally arrived at the City Hall.

They would undergo their first check, but the new mayor had just arrived, and her authority was not strong. The check at the gate was perfunctory, and they were easily let through without even comparing the faces under the safety helmets to their IDs.

City Hall was a large place, with its outer walls enclosing the buildings in the center. Their vehicle had to stop temporarily at the west gate of the building complex.

The underboss frowned but, seeing the patrolling teams nearby, suppressed his impatience and started unloading the tools. They passed the guards while carrying their equipment.

Deadshot frowned: As an assassin who had sniped twice from a distance and observed City Hall more carefully after the first failed attempt, he knew the patrol numbers and frequency.

The number of patrols hadn’t increased after the shooting; instead, it decreased —

To others, it seemed many, but his experience told him that the patrol range had been narrowed, reducing the overall numbers.

Perhaps to increase the frequency of shift changes? That was his only guess.

Throughout the way, the most anxious about carrying the equipment, not paying attention to his colleagues or the guard teams, was only Peter · Temporary Worker · Parker.

He felt a bit… guilty.

But everyone around him was a seasoned construction worker, so it should be fine, right? He wouldn’t be discovered as a temporary worker who sneaked in, would he? He tried to straighten up, appearing stronger and less conspicuous among the group.

But as the saying goes, what you fear, comes —

“Kid?” A lady in her twenties, wearing a white-striped uniform, and holding a coffee, stood on the steps they had to pass, “I’ve been waiting for a long time, why are you so slow?”

Peter: “?”

The lady pursed her lips with a shy yet coquettish smile, throwing a suggestive glance at Peter: “Come over here, as we agreed… put your stuff down, no, bring it along…”

She implied: “You might need it.”

Feeling the other’s weird and ambiguous glances, Peter was stunned for a moment, then realized what it meant, his face instantly turning red as if bleeding.

Wait, no —

It’s not what you think!